If I was in the habit of ranking music festivals, both SXSW and Denmark’s Roskilde Festival would definitely make my top five. So when I saw that Roskilde would be presenting a showcase at this year’s SouthBy in honour of their 50th edition happening later this year (after a three year pause due to … well, you know), it was the best of both worlds. And when I saw that Astid Sonne would be playing that showcase, I made sure I was there.
I had seen Sonne perform once before, at Roskilde 2019, where she delivered a memorable performance on the festival’s tiniest, most intimate stage. At that show, she absolutely impressed with a mesmerising blend of electronic and classical elements and this show was no different in that sense. In a way though, it was a totally new experience – a different setup, a different accompanist, and different compositions, but Sonne was working within the same general ballpark. And it was brilliant.
During her time onstage at Cheer Up Charlie’s, Astrid Sonne delivered a performance that was beautiful, unique, and fully engrossing. Maybe not ideal stuff for an outdoor venue full of chatty drinkers, but an incredible performance nonetheless.
Things are bad. I don’t have to tell you things are bad.
Yes, I’m borrowing a line from the film Network, but rather than going down the path to Howard Beale-style doomsaying, I’m choosing instead to focus on the things that make us happy (specifically music in this case – we are a music blog after all) in order to distract a bit from all the bad things. And if we’re talking about things that make us happy, Roskilde is one of my happy places.
I’ve attended the Danish festival, held in the city of the same name, multiple times now and it never fails to impress. From the varied musical lineup to the art installations to the general sense of community, the festival has a great vibe and in many ways it seems to embody the Danish concept of hygge. Or to put it in terms most Roskilde attendees would understand, the Orange Feeling.
This year, Roskilde Festival is celebrating its 50th edition (providing everything’s back to normal by then) and while I probably won’t be there, I was lucky enough to attend the 2019 edition, where I saw a diverse lineup of acts spanning a wide range of genres.
Of all the acts I saw over the course of those four days, one of the most unique performances I took in was a set by Copenhagen-based composer Astrid Sonne. Her sound, combining electronic and classical elements, was rather impressive to hear and to see performed live, especially within the confines of the festival’s intimate Gloria Stage.
Check out the video for “Area Under A Curve,” off of Astrid Sonne’s latest release Cliondynamics, below.
At one point relatively early on in the band’s set, Whores singer-guitarist Christian Lembach announced to the crowd that it would all be coming to an end soon. Seeing as how the band was barely even 20 minutes into their set, he clearly wasn’t talking about their show. No, he meant it was ALL coming to an end, as in the world and everything in it.
“Don’t you know the apocalypse is coming?” he asked the crowd before adding, “Thanks for coming out. If we’re all gonna die we may as well all party.” That may seem a little grim for a Saturday afternoon, but hey, you don’t really go to see noise rock bands for uplifting messages. Nevertheless, he’s got a point – you might as well party and there was something of a party atmosphere at their show with a small group enthusiastically moshing near the front of the stage. “Look at you animals all mixing it up,” said Lembach as he looked upon the pit approvingly. The band’s aggressive noise rock (I caught hints of Helmet, Unsane, Jesus Lizard and Melvins in their sound) definitely struck the right note for me on a day that got off to a mellow start, pushing me in the direction of many of the heavier acts on the bill for much of the rest of the day.
Hardcore veterans Converge put on one of the heaviest, most intense shows of the day during their set later that night on the Avalon Stage. I don’t think I’ve seen the band live since the early 2000s (possibly even since the Jane Doe tour … I am old) and was impressed to see the band (especially vocalist Jacob Bannon) hasn’t really lost any of the energy from those days.
As much as I was enjoying Converge’s set, I had to cut out early and make my way across to the other end of the festival grounds to check out London’s Petrol Girls, who also put on an intense show with a strong political edge. The band has a strong feminist message in their music and covers several other issues within their lyrics. Though they were playing a festival show, the band made it feel like a gig in some tiny punk club, building up an inclusive atmosphere and a safe space.
A powerful performance from a band that I hope to hear a lot more from in the future.
In recent years, Morrissey has continued his steady decline into becoming everyone’s weird, angry old uncle who posts dodgy videos online and has all the worst opinions about everything. In response to the most recent example of such behaviour on Moz’s part, Billy Bragg posted a lengthy Facbook post in response that, among many other points, asked the question of whether we can or should separate the singer from the song. It’s a valid point, and one that Smiths fans (including Bragg) have had to contend with for a good while now, but luckily there’s an easy enough way to sidestep that question somewhat and literally separate the singer from the song – go see Johnny Marr in concert.
Playing a Friday night show on Roskilde’s Arena stage, Marr played a mix of songs from his solo career alongside a few numbers from Electronic, his collaboration with Bernard Sumner, and a decent selection of Smiths songs with a solid cover of Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You” thrown in for good measure. Highlights included “Easy Money”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and “How Soon Is Now” but of course the biggest crowd response came for the set closing rendition of “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” which culminated in a mass singalong and which Marr dedicated to “everyone under this tent and no one fucking else.”
While Marr’s set was a definite highlight of the day and one of the highlights of the whole festival, there were many other highlights on the third day of the festival which illustrated the wide musical diversity seen in the lineup. Chicago rapper Cupcakke started the day off strong with a high energy set of her hilarious, clever and very, very filthy songs. To say her tunes are sexually explicit is putting it mildly but unless you’re easily offended, Cupcakke’s show is a must see. The crowd got quite into the spirit as well, with a few inflated condoms spotted being tossed around the crowd like beach balls and a couple of fans up front just waving cucumbers around in the air. “If you was a virgin,” said Cupcakke at the end of her show, “I don’t think you a virgin no more.”
Next up was Sidney Gish, who proved to be just as clever a lyricist as Cupcakke while covering quite different subject matter and taking a much different approach to her music. Performing solo, the Boston based singer put on an entertaining show full of quirky indie rock tunes like “Sin Triangle” and “I’m Full Of Steak, and Cannot Dance” that was highlighted by some impressive guitar work throughout.
Also impressive was Irish folk band Lankum’s performance, with the band running through both original compositions and traditional numbers with a focus on anti-war and anti-fascist tunes at times. The band scored some points with the crowd as well by singing a snippet of the one Danish protest song they knew, which one of them had seen sung at Danish protests and which roughly translated to “Middle finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am. G’day g’day g’day!” That they did this all while the booming bass of Ross From Friends’ performance reverberated from a nearby stage made it all the more impressive.
Of course one of the most anticipated sets of the entire festival was Robyn’s late night headlining set on the Orange stage that really got the crowd going. Once she launched into “Dancing On My Own” it was impossible to deny the power of that song. Robyn herself seemed a bit taken aback by the response she got when the crowd sang the chorus back to her en masse. It was a memorable moment and one that brought to mind a comment made by a member of Jamaican reggae group Inna De Yard earlier in the day: “This is my first time in Denmark and I must say – it’s full of love.”
